France Officially Honors Miyamoto, Ancel, Raynal

The French Ministry of Culture is preparing to honor three game developers by conferring knighthoods in the Order of Arts and Letters, in a ceremony to be held on Monday, March 13th. Minister of Culture Renard Donnedieu de Vabres will present the awards to the three leading game creators in the Ministry building in Paris. The three creators to be inducted are two Frenchmen -- Michel Ancel, whose works include King Kong, Beyond Good & Evil, and the Rayman series, as well as Frederick Raynal, director of the original Alone in the Dark game -- as well as Japan's Shigeru Miyamoto, seminal Nintendo producer and creator of the Mario and Zelda franchises, among others, who will be present in Paris for the ceremony. Up to 200 knights in the Order may be named per year, with fewer receiving the Officer and highest Commander rank. French recipients must be at least 30 years old, but no age restriction applies to foreign inductees. Some notable non-French knights in the Order, which does not allow the honoree to add a 'Sir' in front of their name, as an English knighthood does, include David Bowie, William Faulkner, and Allen Ginsberg. More on the French Ministry of Culture's awards will appear on Gamasutra next week, as a correspondent will be present at the ceremony to report on it for us.